Bella Bear/Morning Coffee

Creating a card using only digital products!

That is correct! This beautiful card was created using only digital products.

I know… if you have been hanging out here for awhile then you have listened to me drone on about digital images… but I just love working with them.

In fact - every Wednesday now features a card with a digital image.

So today’s card not only features a digital image but also digital paper and a digital sentiment.

Though I have used a digital image for the focal point on a card on so many occasions I wanted to show the end result of a card using only digital products.

The products used today come from Polka Doodles, and really this company just makes it so easy for you to create a card without the price of shipping and handling or waiting on the mail or delivery system. All of the digital designs came from 1 file, 1 purchase - no searching around to see what goes with what. Everything is there in one file after purchasing - just choose the items you want to create your card.

I’m going to show you the file… right here so this is easier to explain to anyone who is not familiar with digital files.

*** I  just want to let you know that I do have an affiliation with Polka Doodles and I recommend their products because I have worked with them and I love them!! 

I do not have an affiliation with Adobe Express - I just love the product. It makes my life easier! 

When I love a product … I absolutely want to share that with everyone… like shout it from the rooftops type thing! 

So this is a picture of what the file looks like on the Polka Doodles web site when you are browsing.

This tell us that you get a black & white image for coloring, a precolored image (great if you don’t like to color), SVG & DXF files for cutting the image on cricut cameo or brother cutting machine, 4 digital pattern papers, and a sentiment for less than $5 bucks.

If you wish to have more sentiment options Polka Doodles has several awesome sheets of sentiments geared around specific occasions or images that can be purchased for just a few dollars each.

Also there are several digital paper packages that can be purchased separately as well.

When I am choosing the designs I will purchase I search for these type that contain and image(s), paper, and sentiments. These small bundles give you many options for creating.

So - onwards… I purchased this file and saved it to my growing library of digital images, which as large as it is still takes up no space and I didn’t have to build any shelves to store them! :)

I selected the digital image that I wanted to print. Many of the designs from Polka Doodles come with print files already sized for many sizes of cards (big bonus) however this one didn’t. Easy enough. I can either resize it into a card layout using Adobe Express, or I can just hit print and in the print options I choose the size I want the image to print out. So for example : I selected inches and set it to 4 x 5.25. The printer should show a small print preview to be sure before you hit that actual print button.

Printing the sentiments - same deal. Use the print options and the print preview to see that the sentiment is the size you desire.

Digital paper - open the file, hit print, select size to page or original size and print.

Collect your goodies from the printer and start crafting up your card.

I printed a full sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper so that I would have some of this lovely paper design for another project, however you can in fact only print the size of paper that you actually require.

If you really want to have many options for using digital designs, I find that Adobe Express works fantastic and often what I do is design a project at the 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 size. I add all of the digital elements that I would like to use. This program allows you to actually design the whole card front as you would like it to look if you want to. I however, use it to get precise sizing for my images. I print the image and the sentiment out at that specified size and then I just cut them from that paper using my snips. I have not used the cutting files included with the files as of yet. It’s just to handy to grab my scissors.

I then print the digital pattern paper separately from the images that I will be coloring. Adobe Express - fantastic little program. I have a paid version, but the free version will do all of the above tasks.

My products were printed and before me and I simply laid them all out on my card front using a layout that quickly came to mind. I colored the image and added a few details…

The result was a beautiful card!

Long story, not so short… if you have been curious about designing with digital products - give it try! You’ll love it!

If you decide to try creating with a digital image or maybe you already have - please let me know in the comments below! I would love to hear your thoughts on creating with digital images!